The Deep South drama The Help cleaned
up with four nominations today as the nominations for the 2012 Screen
Actors Guild Awards were announced in Los Angeles.

Among them were nods for Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer.

The adaptation of the best-selling
novel is nominated for ensemble cast along with the silent film The
Artist, the wedding comedy Bridesmaids, the family drama The Descendants
and the romantic fantasy Midnight in Paris.

Scroll down to see trailers of movies nominated for Best Picture...

Favourite: The Help, which stars Emma Stone,
Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Allison Janney, has received four SAG
Awards nominations

Deep South drama: Davis, right, has been honoured with a best actress nomination while co-star Spencer, centre, gets a supporting actress nod for the movie which also features Emma Stone, left

Davis is up for best actress and Spencer for supporting actress as black maids who agree to share stories of their tough lives with an aspiring white writer (Emma Stone) at the start of the civil-rights movement in 1960s Mississippi.

Chastain was nominated for supporting actress as Spencer’s lonely, needy new boss.

The Artist ran second with three nominations, including a best-actor honour for Jean Dujardin as a silent star falling from grace amid the advent of talking pictures and supporting actress for Berenice Bejo, who plays a rising sound-era movie star.

Surprise hit: Jean Dujardin is wowing critics and audiences alike in the silent film, The Artist, which got three SAG Award nominations

Seal of approval: Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams sharing a kiss in a scene from Woody Allen's romantic fantasy Midnight in Paris

Along with Davis, best-actress contenders are Glenn Close as a woman disguising herself as a male butler in 19th-century Ireland in Albert Nobbs and Meryl Streep as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.

Tilda Swinton also got listed in the category as a grief-stricken woman coping with her son’s horrible deeds in We Need to Talk About Kevin, as did Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn.

Joining Dujardin in the best-actor category are Demian Bichir as a hard-working illegal immigrant father in A Better Life, George Clooney as a neglectful father tending his two daughters in The Descendants and Leonardo DiCaprio as FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover in J. Edgar.

Emotional journey: The Descendants features an incredible performance
from George Clooney as a father trying to reconnect with his daughters

Nod: Actresses Judy Greer, right, and Regina King announce George Clooney as a nominee for the category of Best Male Actor during a ceremony today in Los Angeles where the SAG Award nominations were announced

Brad Pitt features in the category too, receiving a nomination for this role as Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane in Moneyball.

The SAG Awards will be presented January 29.

The nominations are among the first major honours on the long road to the February 26 Academy Awards.